The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1887-11-09
THE VERSATILE MAN.
A Myriad Minded Individual Known All
Over the Land.

Over the Land.
Swift 7. Totum was the most versa
tile man ever saw. Talk of myrlad-
minded Shakespeare! Why. Shakes
peare wasn't patch to Totum. Totum
had more minds in half day than
Shakespeare could boast of during his
mortal career. He would swing around
through tho entire realm OF the arts.
sciences and humanities as readily and
as swiftly as the New England wealth.
ercock will describe the horizons cir
Gle, and he would go around the former
quite as often rs the New England
weathercock makes its circuit in search
of the wind that blows.
Swift 7. Totum was, in fact, Won
derful mana wonderfully wonderful
man, not to make it too strong-and
have wondered what the world would
have done without him. Totum
wasn't one of your machine men. who
spend their existence in one con-
tinuous, monotonous movement; nota
bit of it. He was q grand and COM
prehensive machine shop laboratory,
atelier, studio and study rolled into
one. There was nothing which he
hadn't been into-and out ot-and the
only cloud upon Totum's Ifs was the
comparatively small number OF ave.
nues which the world of matter and
the world of thought opened up to his
superabounding versatility.
Meet Totum early in the morning
and you found him filled to overflow.
ing with. say, n scheme to amclioratc
the condition of pastry cooks; an hour
later he was deep in the investigation
of some reconditc theory of his own
relative to the ancient sun-myth; at
MONDAY he was immersed in some
grand business enterprise; the after
noon was given to the elaboration OF
some alleged discovery in physics; the
political regeneration Of the world oc-
cupicd his evening hours, and he re-
!, tired dreaming of an iuchoate patent
process which was to revolutionize the
, custom of wearing stockings inside
ones boots instead of outside.
And then there was nothing small or
: secretiye about Totum. Whatever he
9 did, or rather whatever he began to do,
he invariably took the world into his
confidence. H. wasn't the man te
. shut himself up in secret when he hae
:. one of his vast enterprises on foot. HI
y loved company; the more OF it he had.
;. the better; and he would kindly tall
: over his impending scheme for hours
or as long as any one woull listen t
Il him, and then--why. by that time hi
II prolific mind had given birth to som
II new idea which completely over
: shadowed and dwarfed its predecessor
= grand rs that hail seemed when viewe
y by itself
. Totum never started out to sharpe
lead pencil or draw the cork out
= an ink bottle but he had at least half
- dozen wondering spectators, and
= though it usually ended in somebod
Is, !: else sharpening the pencil an
: in somebody else drawing tho corl
~ that fact did not initiate against hi
y greatness 1t only showed that min
u like his. teeming with a redundancy
H. ideas, was SO trammeled by timc an
c. occasion that it was impossible fc
n him to put any Of them into concret
form.
or For like reason Totum never SUI
o. ceeded in learning q foreign Language
ancient or modern, though he la
made many essays in both direction
and his having in literature was Of Il
dy flimsiest description, while his info
nation upon the practical affairs
IN life was exceedingly tenuous. II
g mind was constructed upon so gr"ad
10 scale, and he attempted so much az
rs SO many things. that he could not p
n himself down long enough to one su
" ject to master it; he could not il
OF prove ono opportunity without losil
III hundreds of other opportunities.
'ii If Totum could have divided his CO
VI poreal substance into thousand di
~ tinct individualitics, he would east
US have furnished them all from his oy
nc brain with vocations and avocatio
Oh sufficient to last them all to the era
ny of doom. 1t was really too bad in Pro-
dence to endow Totum with SO versat
D. a mind without providing an adequa
ny of physical functions and q sufficien
g - of time to accompany it. Had
ne body been at all commensurate vi
M his mind, and his life been extend
ny over centuries instead of through
MS paltry thrcescore and ten at the o.
ct side, this world would one day be
'ad very different world than we NJ
find 1t.
De But, alas! Totum's carrying pow'
DIX were no match to his creative.
It, died without accomplishing any THU
ere He had all through his life "bitten
leir more than he could chaw." He v
OF chewing ever-he absorbed nothil
ties But Totum was a most excell'
lch chewer. Boston Transcript.
EN- .>-
Household Helps.